Juilliard Trained Musicians Help You with Your New York Wedding Music.

(Note: this page deals with New York wedding music. To see if Juilliard trained musicians are currently available in your area, see our locations page.)

How do you choose the right New York wedding music for you? Have you read an article about wedding music, or looked on the Internet? If so, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed about where to go from here. There are so many music choices- which are appropriate for your wedding?

Choosing your New York Wedding Music

The best approach to choosing your wedding music is to understand the different functions of each aspect of music at your wedding. There are two broad categories of wedding music: wedding ceremony music, and wedding reception music.

Wedding ceremony music contains four main aspects, the first of which is the prelude music. The purpose of prelude music is to create feelings of reflection, peace, anticipation, beauty, and reverence for the sacred act that follows. For this reason, it is best to choose music that is flowing, calm, and in a major key, preparing guests for the bridal party processional.

Processional music accompanies the entrance of the flower girl, bride's maids, and especially, the bride. The best music for a procession is that which is in duple meter (you can usually tell this if it is easy to walk to), beautiful, and again in a major key. Two pieces are traditionally used for the procession- one for the bridal party, and another for the bride.

Certain religious ceremonies may have music inserted within the ceremony, such as
Catholic Wedding Ceremony Music
or Jewish wedding ceremony music. Of course, there may be music during the ceremony even if your wedding does not have religious associations.

Finally, after the bride and groom have been presented as husband and wife to their guests, a recessional accompanies the new couple out of the church or other venue, as well as those in attendance. Because of the nature of the wedding ceremony, it is best to have classical music. Classical music can create a reflective, romantic, and elegant mood. Location also plays a part in wedding ceremony music. You would probably want different music for your Central Park New York wedding music than your St. Pat's New York wedding music. See our Wedding Ceremony Music page for more detail, as well as repertoire suggestions.

The second category of wedding music is wedding reception music. Here, there are fewer traditions dictating the selection of music. If you are having cocktails, dinner, and dancing at your wedding reception, you may want to have the same classical musicians that performed at your ceremony to play for your cocktail hour and dinner, and then hire one of our jazz bands for dancing.

Usually, the music selections are left up to the musicians, but if you have a special request, then don't hesitate to ask. An experienced group of well-trained musicians will create the perfect atmosphere for your reception. Again, location here matters as well. If your reception is at an upscale establishment, then you may want to only employ the services of a classical ensemble. But if you plan on a celebratory night of dancing, then book a jazz ensemble for after-dinner fun.

Choosing the Right Ensemble for your New York Wedding Music

Budget plays a part in choosing the right musicians for your wedding music. More musicians cost more money, but provide benefits such as warmth, complexity of contrapuntal writing, and more complete harmonic structures.

String Quartets provide rich beauty of sound and flexibility. Consisting of 2 violinists, a violist, and a cellist, quartets have the ability to perform a wide range of repertoire, and for these reasons, it is a good choice for many weddings. String Trios, made up of either 2 violinists and cellist or violinist, violist, and cellist, provide many of the benefits of the string quartet while being more economical because there is one less musician. The sound of a string trio will be less full sounding and complete than that of a quartet, and offers less complexity of sound, but still creates a warm, beautiful sound, while providing good value.

Duos sound more hollow when compared to a string quartet, but can be striking nonetheless. Combinations for duos include 2 violinists, a violinist and violist, violinist and flutist, or violinist and cello, just to name a few. Solo musicians for your New York wedding music work well when paired with your church organist. Solo violin wedding music is especially effective and versatile when performing with your organist,pianist or even unaccompanied. See our
Classical Music Ensembles
page for more types of ensembles and information.

The quality of the musicians that you hire can make or break your wedding ceremony- quite literally. An inexperienced, unprepared, poorly trained ensemble can cause chaos during your ceremony- confusion as the bride attempts to walk down the aisle, tempi that cause the bridal party to either run down the isle or crawl, or even ruined atmosphere by simply not having precise ensemble, playing with a scratchy tone, or playing out of tune. Many groups don't even bother to rehearse before your wedding, preferring to sight-read the music instead. Calling a lesser known music school can provide you with inexperienced musicians, and only a few music schools have the best musicians.

These are reasons why we chose to start Hire Conservatory Alumni- to provide you with the best trained musicians in the world, who have experience choosing the correct repertoire and ensembles for your New York wedding music, who provide consistent, quality performances, and can even save you money. If you have any questions about your New York wedding music, or would like to hire a Juilliard trained ensemble, please fill out the form below.

Hire Conservatory Alumni (630) 292-6182

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Hire Conservatory Alumni serves weddings in the following New York metropolitan areas:
Manhattan, Long Island, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Rye, Westchester, New Jersey, and southern Connecticut.

We cannot list all of the areas we serve. If your area is not listed, please contact us.